


Nothing So Bad

by mydeira, Sadbhyl



Series: Responsible Adults (aka, The Menageaverse) [89]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-11
Updated: 2013-04-11
Packaged: 2017-12-08 04:56:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/757298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mydeira/pseuds/mydeira, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sadbhyl/pseuds/Sadbhyl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While it’s no body in the road, Faith still gets welcomed to Sunnydale.  And with a lot more style.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nothing So Bad

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published October 17, 2005
> 
> Spoilers through “Dirty Girls”. While it’s no body in the road, Faith still gets welcomed to Sunnydale. And with a lot more style. Thank you to [](http://sadbhyl.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://sadbhyl.livejournal.com/)**sadbhyl** for the polish and encouragement. And at long last I *finally* get to write Faith. I love her and I’ve written her only in drabbles.

“So let me get this straight,” Faith turned in the seat, tucking her legs underneath her to better face Willow, “Joyce not only hooked up with Giles, but Giles’ old buddy from his wild youth? Damn, B must’ve had a cow over that.”

“Did she ever!” Willow exclaimed.

“B’s always been too uptight for her own good.” Then something she had seen that night she had held Joyce hostage made a lot more sense. “Oh, man, I can’t believe I didn’t figure it out sooner. I thought that tie looked familiar.”

Willow took her eyes off the road long enough to look at Faith suspiciously.

“When I was looking for things to tie Joyce up with the night I did the body switch with B, I found a man’s tie under the bed. And a few other things I wouldn’t have expected B’s mother to have lying around.” Faith grinned. “I always knew I liked her for a reason.”

“Um, what kind of things did you find?” Willow asked curiously.

“You can just use your imagination,” she said with mock severity.

“Faith . . .”

“Uh uh, I’m good now, remember? Can’t share other people’s dirty little secrets,” she teased. “So, any other surprises in store for me?”

“Well, there’s something you should know about—” Willow’s words were cut off by a bright flash of light and a loud popping sound which caused the car to swerve violently out of control.

Faith had enough time to regret not wearing her seat belt as she was thrown alternately between the dashboard and the passenger door. The car finally came to a stop on the side of the road, just missing a near-by tree.

Groaning, she ran a quick mental inventory of her body—no breaks, but she’d be sore as hell for a few hours. “You okay, Will?” she asked finally.

The other woman looked shaken and pale, but otherwise unharmed. “I-I’m okay.”

“I’m beginning to think seat belts aren’t such a crazy deal after all.” When Willow didn’t respond, “Willow? Hey, what’s—”

“Oh, no,” she cut Faith off before she could finish, transfixed by something out in the darkness.

Faith didn’t need to search the darkness as a figure stepped into the beam of the skewed headlight. Tall, lithe, wicked powerful—while not usually sensitive to magic, she could definitely tell this was no ordinary man. And he was smiling at them. While it wasn’t menacing, pleasant actually, it did nothing to set her at ease.

“We need to go, now!” Willow barked, throwing her door open and jumping out.

Her door was jammed shut, so Faith shot out Willow’s side. Before she could ask what was going on, Willow grabbed her and pulled her along as she broke into a flat out sprint. Faith never ran from a fight in her life. But Willow wasn’t giving her much of a choice. Some guy knocks your car off the road, you go beat the shit out of him. So much for rehab.

Willow must have sensed this. “You can’t take him, Faith, it’s not worth trying.”

“It’s just one guy,” Faith said, amazed at the pace the woman was keeping.

“One guy who can wipe both of us out in the blink of an eye.”

“But aren’t you all powerful with the magic now? Between my muscle and your mojo, we can take him.”

“No. Trust me on this, Faith,” Willow said, scanning the scenery she directed their flight to a clearing. “There’s a high energy field over there. When we reach it, I can teleport us out of here.”

Not given any other option, Faith followed her. And she wondered, not for the first time, why she even bothered with this town. It always seemed to have it in for her. Ok, so that was true with every town she’d been to, but more so in Sunnyhell.

As they broke into the clearing, Faith could hear Willow begin chanting. It felt like the air was pressing in on them. Faith wasn’t so sure about this whole teleporting thing. It wasn’t in her realm of experience, and she was a passive participant. But before anything came of it, Willow was torn away from Faith’s side, flying through the air and landing unconscious at the base of tree.

Shit. Faith crouched, scanning the darkness, alert for another attack.

“You can stand down, my dear,” a smooth, cultured voice spoke from behind her. “I have no intention of harming you. At present,”

She spun to face the man she had seen in the car headlight. He was taller than she had thought. And not too hard on the eyes. Oh yeah, and thinking like that never led anywhere good.

“So you’re the bad Slayer?” he considered her as he circled predatorily, his smile appraising. “Much more attractive that the beloved Miss Summers. The chaos to her order. Enchanting.”

“While I like my ego stroked as much as the next gal, I’m more in the mood to be kicking your ass right now,” she said, watching him warily.

“Careful, little girl, some of us consider that foreplay. Don’t we?” His voice had gotten lower, just touched with huskiness. Christ, was he trying to seduce her?

The guy was seriously asking for it, but Faith held herself back. She’d seen what he could do. For once, she was going to be smart and wait for an opening. Not easy for an all-action girl.

“Mm, we could have such fun getting to know each other.” His eyes traveled over her body.

That was enough. “Been there, done that. Already had one evil sugar daddy, not so eager to repeat the experience.”

“Pity,” he said, eyes lingering a little longer on her cleavage before snapping up to her face. The pretense was gone. “I need you to deliver a message for me. Do you think you can do that, Faith?”

Faith readied herself, if there was going to be an opening. It would be soon. “Depends on the message,” she said warily.

“You know, life is quite a bit easier when you trust people, my dear,” he said, an odd note in his voice. The man held up an empty palm. An instant later, he held a sheet of heavy folded paper, which he offered to her. “Give this to Ripper.”

Caught off guard, she took it automatically. “Ripper, who’s R—”

But the man was gone.

Damn, she should have stayed in LA. Hell, prison was better than this shit.

A low groan came from the base of the tree.

Faith rushed over to Willow who was unsteadily trying to get to her feet. “He’s gone?” she asked uncertainly.

Wrapping Willow’s arm around her shoulder, Faith helped steady Willow on her feet. “Yeah. Looks like he just wanted to play post office.

Willow’s half dazed eyes looked at her in confusion.

She held up the piece of paper. “Said it’s a message for Ripper.”

The paper was snatched out of her hand. Opening it, Willow let out a gasp. “Oh, goddess.”

Faith’s eyes widened when she saw the picture. It was a nude sketch of Giles, done by a talented hand and looking surprisingly studly. “Damn, is that true to life? While I always thought Giles was hiding something good under all that tweed, I didn’t think it was that good. Knew I should have put the moves on him.”

“Faith!”

“What? C’mon, Will, I know you’re batting for the other team, but you can’t tell me that isn’t a fine piece of flesh there.”

Willow studied the picture. “It’s not . . . unappealing.”

Faith laughed, then quickly sobered. “So who was that guy?”

“That was Ethan Rayne,” Willow said flatly.

“The same guy that Joyce and Giles were shacking up with?” Faith exclaimed.

Willow nodded. “That’s what I was about to tell you in the car. Ethan’s working with the First.”

Oh yeah, same old Sunnydale.  



End file.
